MA Modules 2012-13
PLEASE NOTE: ALL DESCRIPTIONS, DATES AND TIMES SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION
2012-2013 Semester I
- PHIL 40380 Current Issues in the Philosophy of Mind & Language (TBC), Mondays 11-1
What is the relationship between thought, language and the world? This course examines recent philosophical responses to this seminal question.
- PHIL 40840 Autonomy as a Philosophical Problem (Brian O’Connor), Mondays 2-4
The exercise of autonomy is among the most valued of human capacities. Civilized societies aspire to the rational exercise of freedom. Scanlon defines autonomous persons as "sovereign in deciding what to believe and in weighing competing reasons for action." And the sovereign persons operates under their "own canons of rationality" and "cannot accept without independent consideration the judgment of others" about the actions they are expected to undertake.This module will explore the theory of autonomy and the wide range of difficulties that attach to it. (1) The Metaphysics of the Self. The theory of autonomy is committed to a notion of the self in which reasons can prevail over passions. (2) The Source of Normativity. If sovereignty over our own reasons is a characteristic of autonomy we need to be confident that they are genuinely our own and that they are reasons which we are free to endorse or reject. Explanations of these two pivotal features of the theory of autonomy have yet to be unproblematically provided by philosophy. This will be seen through critical readings of materials selected from the German Idealists, Nietzsche, Adorno and some contemporary neo-Hegelians and Kantians.
- PHIL 40350 Law, Liberty and the State (Gerard Casey), Tuesday 11-1
This module examines the interdependency of three related notions: law, liberty and the method of political organisation known as the state. The possibility of polycentric legal orders will be examined, together with the contention that the state is a bulwark against disorder and a necessary condition of genuine freedom.Harold Berman's "Law and Revolution" is recommended background reading. Murray Rothbard's "The Ethics of Liberty" is required reading and will be made available on Blackboard, together with a significant amount of other material. See also, Gerard Casey's Libertarian Anarchism (published July 2012).
- PHIL 40250 Merleau Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception (Tim Mooney), Tuesdays 2-4
This module comprises a close reading of Phenomenology of Perception. It begins with Merleau-Ponty's appropriation of Husserl's phenomenology, and proceeds to explicate the critique of objectivism as found in the empiricist and intellectualist approaches to perception. Merleau-Ponty's proposed alternative founded on phenomenological description will then be considered. Topics to be covered include the perceptual field, the living body as subject, kinaesthesia, proprioceptive body-image and body-schema, motor-intentionality and perceptual synthesis.
- PHIL 40830 The Development of Platonism (John Dillon/Andrew Smith), Tuesdays 4-6
The seminar will trace the development of Plato's philosophy both in the course of the philosopher's own maturing thought and its subsequent transformation in Neoplatonism, especially Plotinus. Selected texts from Plato's dialogues and Plotinus' Enneads will be studied. Reference will be made to later cultural and philosophical influences of Plato's thought.
- PHIL 40410 Philosophy & Literature (Joseph Cohen/Fran O’Rourke), Wednesdays 11-1
The relationship between Philosophy and Literature will be here examined firstly in a historical genealogy. We will thus begin our intepretation of this rapport with Plato and elaborate its transformation through the philosophical epochs of Modernity, of German Idealism, of early and contemporary Existentialism and Deconstruction. Our reflection will thus attempt to reveal in which manner and according to which modality the rapport between Philosophy and Litterature has been thought in the history of Western thought. We will examine hermeneutically the possibilities of reading the relation between Philosophy and Literature through the works of both philosophers and writers.
- PHIL 40970 Philosophy of Mind (Maria Baghramian/Cathal O Madagain/Thomas Szanto), Wednesdays 2-4
This course looks at some of the fundamental conceptual and philosophical issues arising out of the study of the human mind and consciousness. The topics covered include:
I. Philosophy of Mind: The Foundations
II. Contemporary theories of the relatioship between the mind and the body
III. Consciousness.
- PHIL 40710 Phenomenology of Embodiment (Dermot Moran/Mahon O'Brien), Thursdays 11-1
This seminar aims to develop an in-depth, critical understanding of Edmund Husserl's phenomenology of embodiment, through a critical reading of selected texts from Husserl including Ideas II, Cartesian Meditations and the Crisis of the European Sciences. Themes covered include Husserl's conception of transcendental phenomenology, the phenomenological epoche and reduction, the distinction between physical body and lived body, sensory perception, feelings, emotions, agency, the embodied person, empathy, intersubjectivity and the 'life-world'. Husserl's phenomenology of embodiment will be compared with other appoaches including that of Merleau-Ponty.
- PHIL 40860 God, Soul & Nature in Ancient Philosophy (Fran O’Rourke), Thursdays 2-4
In these seminars we will examine three fundamental, interrelated, topics in ancient Greek Philosophy: God, the soul, and nature. Natural theology, philosophical monotheism in particular, was advanced significantly during this period. The Greeks are also credited with the discovery of the soul, and the philosophical concept of nature. We will trace the origins of these notions in Presocratic philosophy, and chart their development through Plato and Aristotle.
2012-2013 Semester II
- PHIL 40770 Philosophy of Autobiography (Christopher Cowley), Mondays 2-4
'Autobiography' will be taken loosely: it is not only the book I publish or the diary I keep, it also comprises the stories I tell to myself and others about who I am. As such, this module will explore a number of long-standing philosophical problems. What is the self, and how does it develop? How well can I know myself, how well can I understand another self, how well can I make sense of my past self? When is remorse or shame appropriate when thinking about the past, and when is an apology appropriate in the present? What about the risk of self-deception and inauthenticity and corruption throughout? How responsible am I for my character? What role do my relationships, projects and ideals play in shaping my character, in shaping my self-understanding? What role does luck play in who I turn out to be?
- PHIL 41010 Philosophy & Literature in an Anglo-American Context (Aine Kelly), Tuesdays 11-1
The aim of this module is to introduce students to the relationship between philosophy and literature in a specifically Anglo-American context. Texts discussed may include work by Stanley Cavell, Simon Critchley, Cora Diamond, Alasdair MacIntyre, Iris Murdoch, Martha Nussbaum and Richard Rorty. In engaging with these texts, students will be encouraged to think about the following questions: What is the relationship between moral philosophy and the novel? Can a poet be a philosopher? How might the reading of tragedy shed light on philosophical scepticism? Does philosophical argument necessarily preclude literary style? Supplementary reading will include texts by contemporaries (Blanchot, Derrida, Levinas) exploring the philosophy/literature relation from a continental perspective.
- PHIL 40360 Heidegger – from Dasein to the Kehre (Joseph Cohen), Tuesdays 2-4
This seminar will focus on the early Heidegger. We will examine the development of Heidegger's thought from 1923 to 1945 and thus concentrate firstly on Heidegger's elaboration of the question of time, the influence of Husserlian phenomenology, the phenomenological interpretation of Kant, and the investigations on the essence of freedom. Close attention will also be given to Heidegger's understanding of the history of metaphysics and the "necessity" for its Destruktio stipulated in the opening paragraphs of Sein und Zeit. These topics will lead us to a profound understanding of the meaning of Dasein and thus, to the elaboration of the ontological difference. We will then be able to seize the radical turn (Kehre) in Heidegger's thought. Precisely, we shall interpret the "invention", after the inevitable failure of the "existential analytic", of the notion of Ereignis, central to the subsequent development of Heidegger's philosophy.
- PHIL 40420 The Good Society (Maeve Cooke), Wednesdays 11-1
A new form of realism has been making its voice heard in contemporary social and political theory. The new realists advocate a “bottom-up” approach to theorizing - one beginning from an understanding of the existing conditions and constraints of social and political life. They reject “ideal theory”, by which they mean a mode of theorizing that start by establishing an ideal theory of justice, then applies it to actual agents and institutions. This objection resonates with some recently voiced criticisms within Frankfurt School critical social theory. These critics reproach Habermas for what they see as his move towards a Kantian idealism at expense of the fine-grained, historically sensitive, empirically informed analyses which, traditionally, were the hallmark of theory in this tradition. The result, they claim, is loss of critical social theory’s diagnostic, explanatory and motivational power.
Focusing on the question of the “good society”, the course will consider the kind of approach best suited to analysis of society from the point of view of normative ideals such as quality of life, justice, freedom and truth. The debate between "realism" and "ideal theory" will frame the discussion. It will draw on recent work in the applied social sciences and in critical social theory.
The course will be co-taught by Professor Maeve Cooke, School of Philosophy, and Professor Tony Fahey, School of Applied Social Sciences.
- PHIL 40930 Mind & World (Jim O'Shea), Wednesdays 2-4
This seminar examines the role that certain fundamental concepts and forms of inference play in constituting our experiential knowledge both of our own conscious selves and of the objective material world that we perceive. The focus will typically be on various broadly Kantian and neo-pragmatist lines of thinking that extend from Kant’s famous argument in the Transcendental Analytic section of the Critique of Pure Reason; continuing through such classical American pragmatist thinkers as C. S. Peirce, William James, and C. I. Lewis; subsequently sharpened by such systematic analytic philosophers as P. F. Strawson (descriptive metaphysics; the concept of a person) and Wilfrid Sellars (the myth of the given; the logical space of reasons); and at the present time defended in depth by various philosophers influenced by all of the above thinkers, such as Robert Brandom and John McDowell. Each year this course will focus on selected fundamental questions highlighted by a selection of such thinkers as those, on topics concerning (for example) the nature of perceptual knowledge, self-knowledge, and intentional action).
- PHIL 40940 Topics in Social and Political Philosophy (Danielle Petherbridge), Wednesdays 4-6
This course explores core themes in social and political philosophy, focusing on different modes of analyzing and critiquing social and political formations. Texts discussed may include essays by Nietzsche, Adorno, Foucault, Arendt, Rorty, Butler, Derrida, Habermas and Honneth. Texts by Kant, Rousseau and Marx will provide an introduction. In discussing the texts particular attention will be paid both to the mode of critique advocated and to the vantage point from which the critique of social and political formations is undertaken.
- PHIL 41020 Questions on Sovereignty (Joseph Cohen), Thursdays 11-1
The principle of sovereignty generally designates the “prerogative of supreme commandment” characteristic of the Nation-State. Jean Bodin, in 1576 and most particularly in the 'Six Books on the Republic', offered the first theory of this principle. According to Bodin, sovereignty is defined as the summa potestas of the Republic which is not to be understood democratically but rather as Res publica. The very term of summa potestas, used to define sovereignty and through it a Sovereign Monarch, marks that any political entity as such possesses a predominating power which it can exercise on both the “interior front”, that is within its own frontiers, as well as on the “exterior front”, that is in its relation to other Nation-States. This principle thus represents the pinnacle point of the political act by which a Nation-State can except itself from its “everyday affairs” in order to submit itself to the decisional power of a sovereign governance. First question thus: Under which conditions may this exception and consequently sovereign governance be justified? And secondly, what ought to limit, if anything, sovereign governance? We will also pose the following questions: can sovereignty be used strategically? And if so, can sovereign governance be abused? In this sense, and following from these questions, we will hence study and examine the relation between sovereignty and democracy. Are sovereignty and democracy compatible ideas? Is it democratically possible to call for a “state of exception” leading to a sovereign governance? And if so, what can critically challenge sovereign governance?
- PHIL 41000 Living Well: Aristotle's Ethics and Politics (Tim Crowley), Thursdays 2-4
Aristotle conceives ethics and politics as falling under the same branch of knowledge, namely political science. His works in this area, the 'Nicomachean Ethics', and the 'Politics', are masterpieces of philosophy, and remain of great interest and influence today. In this module we will examine the key doctrines that Aristotle argues for in these seminal texts. Topics to be discussed include: the virtues; justice; the significance of practical reasoning; the problem of weakness of the will; the question of pleasure; the importance of friendship; the nature of citizenship; the ideal state; education in the ideal state; and the meaning of happiness. To set Aristotle's work in its appropriate historical and philosophical context, we will also look closely at the treatment of these, and similar, topics by Aristotle's great predecessors, Socrates and Plato. We shall also consider the influence of Aristotle's approach on modern moral and political philosophy.
- PHIL 40960 Cultural Mind (Maria Baghramian), Fridays 11-1
This course focuses on current research on the interdependence between language, culturally mediated conceptual schemes and the human mind. Using empirical evidence. as well as philosophical analysis, we examine the impact of language and culure on perception, thought and judgement and ask if recent empirical studies have made cultural relativism intellectually respectable.
- PHIL 40950 Carnal Hermeneutics (Richard Kearney), Intensively taught over 2 weeks.
This seminar explores a hermeneutics of writing and reading in the flesh. Beginning with Merleau-Ponty's notion of diacritical perception as a way of seeing across gaps, analogous to Saussure's linguistic model of diacritical signifying, the course goes on to examine a number of related models of carnal interpretation: Heidegger's existential 'as-structure' in Being and Time, Ricoeur's notion of 'narrative catharsis' (pity and fear) in Time and Narrative, Nancy's notion of 'touch' and Kristeva's notion of 'semiotic sensation'. These discussions bring us to the heart of the contemporary explorations of a phenomenology of embodiment and incarnation.